Canadá parte dos

The following list is my itinerary for the epic trip to Canada. The research and schedual was all coordinated by my lovely Steve. Hiking, camping, hiking, canoeing, driving, hiking, and Trekkies! Woohooo!

Day 1: drive from Lasson, CA to Crater Lake NP, OR, hike around Crater Lake and camp.


Day 2: drive to Portland and Seattle. Stay with friends in Seattle.


Day 3: drive to Osoyoos.


Day 4: hike Osoyoos - northernmost desert in North America (desert
(scorpions, spadefoot toads, tiger salamander, rattlesnakes, and
cacti). Hike Cathedral Provincial Park (alpine lakes, formations,
Mountain goats, Bighorn sheep, and marmots). Go wine tasting in
Naramata & Kelowna.
( I personally would have put wine tasting first, then hiking, because there's nothing more fun then hiking through a desert drunk. Trust me, I'm an expert on this.)


Day 5: watch mating displays of Western Grebes on boardwalk in Salmon
Arm. drive through Glacier National Park. See Burgess Shale in Field.
Lunch at Lake Louise. Walk around a marsh in Banff and go to the Whyte
Museum of the Canadian Rockies. drive to Calgary.


Day 6: walk around Calgary. Drive to Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump
(where the Blackfoot Indians drove the buffalo off a cliff), Vulcan (a
town dedicated to Star Trek), and visit the Royal Tyrell Museum and
badlands at Drumheller.
(Although this may seem silly..."I'm all hopped up on mountain dew" to go to Vulcan.)

(If you can name that quote you will earn 28 cool points)

Day 7: Drive through the Canadian Rockies to Jasper. Hike by Columbia
Ice fields to a lake with lots of tame and playful marmots.
(Marmots! Apparently they are an animal and not just an outfitting brand) 


Day 8: Long drive to Dawson Creek, BC. Stop at Elk Island National
Park to see extremely high densities of wood and plain buffalo, moose,
and elk.


Day 9: Another long day of driving to Laird Hot Springs Provincial
Park (orchids, boardwalk, hot springs), then the Watson Lake Sign Post
Forest, and finally to Teslin, YT.


Day 10: a full day of canoeing on Nisutlin Lake with salmon and moose.
take a short drive to the rustic, artsy town of Atlin and eat some
smoked salmon.


Day 11: Up early and head to Kluane National Park for a long hike
through an amazing park with the highest concentration of grizzlies in
the world, sheep, wolves, mountain goats, moose, and wolverines.
(I highlighted the above because if you don't hear from me after day 11 you''ll know why)


Day 12: drive to another artsy town called Keno Hill. there is a
nearby meadow with tons of wildflowers and arctic butterflies. We hit
Dawson City, YT at night for some drinking and Vaudeville shows.
Places worth checking out include Diamond Tooth Gertie's Gambling Hall
- the oldest casino in Canada and the Sourdough Saloon, where you can
drink a shot with a human toe in it. This is also where we will get
info on the road conditions of the Dempster highway.
(My concern is that the women in the burlesque/vaudeville show will be as old as the casino.) 


Day 13 & 14: A long drive to Inuvik, YT on the Dempster highway. The
highway is full of arctic birds like northern hawk owls, snowy owls,
redpolls, longspurs, gyrfalcon, ptarmigans, loons, shorebirds, and
snow buntings. We should be able to see a small herd of caribou at
Tombstone. There are a few places where we can hike around, but the
drive itself is the main adventure. In Inuvik, we can eat Musk ox &
caribou burgers.
(yes, I shall eat a muskox, then devour it soul and hang its dead corpse from my cars bumper) - no I'm not kidding.


Day 15 & 16: Time to go to the top of the world. I would like to
charter a plane to Banks Island - Aulavik National Park (70,000 musk
ox, caribou, polar bears, arctic fox, ringed seal, bowhead & beluga
whales, lemmings). Hopefully the weather will cooperate, but this
should be the high point of the trip.


Day 17 & 18: drive back south to Hyder, BC. We will hopefully have
time to check out Whitehorse's long fish ladder, art center, and
brewery.


Day 19: After all that driving, we will take a few more relaxing days
before more long days of driving. I want to check of Bear Glacier,
which has a morph of blue ice bears living by it, Fish Creek, where
you can safely watch grizzly and black bears hunting salmon, Nisga's
Memorial Lava Bed Park, and Prince Rupert (large totem pole
collection, Museum of Northern BC).


Day 20: We take a ferry to the Queen Charlotte Islands, go whale
watching (fin, right, humpback, grey, and killer whales), go to St.
Mary's Spring (legend has it that those who drink are destined to
return), the Delkatla Wildlife Sanctuary, Naikoon Park tide pools,
Gandll K'in Gwaayaay (hot springs & totem poles), and camp on Agate
Beach (great beachcombing).
(key words that I like the best....Hot Springs, Totem Poles, and Beach-combing) 


Day 21-22: We get back to the mainland and drive to Vancouver, BC.


Day 23: Drive Vancouver straight to Tucson 

¡FIN!